Month: August 2013

ROSE RAMBLER 15.8.2013

Hello dear rose friends …Rain, rain, go away .. come again another day … I’m trying to heed Graham’s gardening tip from last week to go and prune the roses NOW and I seriously hate working in the rain even though I know I can go and take a hot shower afterwards … it would be my luck that I would get soaking wet, go take a shower and somebody would rock up here at the Rose Farm looking for a rose …NICE ???  NOT!!!

Let’s move right into … GRAHAM’S GARDENING TIPS …

• Compost is great to use on the garden – start right now to add your own compost around the rose bushes because it is a ’gentle’ feed and the cold soil microbes and worms LOVE compost for feed and warmth.
• If you cannot produce your own compost, there are many brands of quality compost available in 30 litre bags – clean and easy to distribute around the roses;  they will reward you with bountiful healthy rose bushes and lots of flowers.
• When you place the compost around the plants, cover with a light layer of mulch which will protect the microbes when the sun starts to get hot!

Gra’s humorous episode happened recently:  I drove into a car park and he said:  “Did you know they now have senior’s car parks at Coles?”  “No, I hardly ever go there but how would they know you’re a senior anyway?”  His reply (quick as a flash):  “Because somebody would have seen ya!”  Needless to say, we rolled, laughing into the restaurant.

WARNING ABOUT WET FEET … ROSES HATE WET FEET …  If you are at all concerned that your new roses are not performing as you would expect, or if they are starting to go ‘brown’ around the bud-union or on the green stems, get them up out of the sopping wet ground and let them grow in pots for a while!  Take care of the drainage to the garden bed and re-plant the roses later when the soil has had a chance to stabilise after all this rain!

Please never leave the new bare-rooted roses in soggy soil because they will definitely perish in a boggy soil!

The newly planted rose bushes should now be producing lots of plump buds and new shoots.  Some develop quicker than others, depending on variety.  Provided you have all the right requirements in place, your Winter roses will be producing lots of roots and this is indicated by swollen buds and shoots.  If you didn’t prune the new roses when/before they went into the ground, go around now and give them a light prune to an outward facing bud – while you’re out in the garden, get the watering can and your liquid seaweed… treat all the roses to a wash-down tonic which will encourage more roots … more roots, more shoots, more shoots, more flowers!  DO IT NOW!!!

SHIFTING AN OLD ROSE …  This afternoon I had a call from an inner-city gardener who (with approval from the property owners) saved four very old roses from a demolition site.  He dug the roses whereas I would have asked the machine operator to dig them!  Anyway, he’s got the roses in his yard but no ground to put them in …?  That’s a real boy thing to do!

Moving on to the important part of our conversation … my suggestions were as follows:

• Cut every single branch to around 30cms in length
• Remove all the old/deadwood at the crown
• Cut out the oldest branches until 3-7 branches remain
• Soak the plants overnight in a trough with weak solution of liquid seaweed
• Plant tomorrow into the garden or;
• Pot into quality potting mix and locate in a sunny position
• Water lightly weekly with liquid seaweed solution

If you have an opportunity to save old roses from the demolition derby which is happening all around us, please do so with confidence …  the pleasure will be immense and the satisfaction in knowing that the person who planted that rose, however many years ago, will be there in spirit, looking over your shoulder and providing all the energy to make the rose survive … believe it and it will happen!

Transplanting an old rose can and should happen whenever the situation occurs … we transplanted the entire rose garden from the Kilmore rose nursery location in February/March and not one single rose died in the process!  Virginia has a beautiful rose garden as a testament of the hardiness and resilience of roses!!!

IN CLOSING …  Enjoy the last weeks of Winter by rugging up and getting down and dirty in the rose garden … the weeds are coming up easily so get ahead of them NOW … when your day is done and you look out at the beautifully pruned rose garden … oh, the pleasure …!

Cheers from Diana & Graham

Hello dear rose friends … have you ever spent time watching a Magpie have dinner?  Quietly, cautiously step across the lawn, head leaning to one side … listening to hear the worms crawling through the earth … is it possible that a worm actually makes a noise while it slithers through the soil?  The magpie hears something …?

The fascination of nature in a quiet moment sitting up on my veranda last evening!  That beautiful female Magpie ate no less than 50 worms and grubs as she readies herself for mating, laying her eggs and the consequent routine of sitting till the chicks arrive.

How her life will change when the eggs hatch and she and her partner will share the feeding of the chicks – I will keep you informed as to how many she has this year … beautiful!

While the Magpies are a happy and non-invasive garden resident, the Sulphur Crested Cockatoos look at me, pick a daffodil and destructively leave it on the ground … I’ll share all the food and resources of the garden, but please don’t just peck something off and then leave it as litter … so angry, I screamed at them, opened the wire-screen door and  slammed it shut hoping to scare them …. ?  They looked at me up on the veranda, railing at them and laughed at me … oh, I got so mad I was racing through the yard with my hands waving!

Surprised not to see an ambulance driving around the corner – here to come and pick me up and take me to the nearest available mental facility … newspaper headlines:  “Local, highly respected rose nursery proprietor removed in great distress ..”   giggle … should make it happen and have the press here ready to report something seriously funny for the evening news … would have to be better than all the negative stuff on the news!

Over the years, how I have despaired for all you beautiful rose gardeners that walk out in the morning to find the possums have feasted on your roses while you’ve been sleeping – there has to be a way of stopping this blatant garden destruction ..?

If you have a good idea or solution, please tell me so that I can share it with other very frustrated rose gardeners … thanks!

SAVE THE ROSES … THERE FOR THE TAKING …  If you live in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne or are seriously keen to get some very old roses which have been raised by staunch rosarians, Mandy and Allen Brundrett – members of the BRUNDRETT ROSES family, please contact … Margaret Lawson on 0407 896 309 and she will give you directions and information about when you can access the property at 29 Kingswood Crescent, Noble Park North where more than 100 roses between 30-50 years old can be dug and rescued.

A HOST OF GOLDEN DAFFODILS … Such a wonderful sight

Yes, we are rosarians and for just as many years, we have been very keen daffodil growers with many of our collection of bulbs in the gardens here at Clonbinane.

If you take a close look at the photo, you will note that the bulbs closest to the Oak tree are smaller than the others … reason for this … I mowed them before they were ready to be mowed!

Never, ever, cut the foliage from your bulbs before that foliage is well and truly browned-off because all the energy from this year’s foliage goes down into the bulb as a food-store for the next year.  Sometimes I have been impatient and not wanted to look at all the dead foliage, run the mower over it and yes, the following year, the flowering stems are shorter with fewer flowers!

Beautiful customers, Linda and Ray were in the other day and Linda was saying that Ray lifts the daffodils and separates them … Is that why they never get a true ‘drift of golden daffodils’ as they see in other people’s gardens ..?

Definitely do not lift and separate your daffodils and let the foliage completely disintegrate so that you can experience the true ‘host of golden daffodils’ … warming pleasure in the Winter/Spring garden!

IN CLOSING …  Graham asks you to allow yourself to feel nature and enjoy the pleasure of growing some seeds, see them come to life with small green shoots which have amazing energy … music to the heart!

Birds singing in the gardens are starting to herald the closeness of Spring … those birds singing are stimulating the stomata of each plant leaf to open and drink the dew to nurture joyous growth.  Liquid seaweed your plants regularly to increase their vigour and strengthen them in readiness for the bounty of the Spring.

Enjoy this last week of Winter … Diana & Graham at Clonbinane